Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION

Frank: Hi everyone, my name is Frank.

Gina: And I’m Gina. Welcome back to GermanPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 3, Lesson 18 - Choosing Something to Drink in Germany. In this lesson, you'll start to learn about plural nouns in German!

Frank: The conversation takes place at a German pub.

Gina: It’s between Kate, Jens, Kate's friend Simon, and the waitress.

Frank: Kate, Jens, and Simon are friends, so they'll be using informal German to each other. But they'll use formal German with the waitress, of course.

Gina: We have ten types of beer, various wines, cocktails, and long drinks, or, also, juices, organic lemonades, coffee, and tea.

Kate: Ich hätte auf jeden Fall gern ein Berliner Pilsener.

Gina: In any case, I'd like to have a Berliner Pilsner.

Jens: Oh… ich nehme einfach auch ein Berliner Pilsener.

Gina: Oh, I'll just take a Berliner Pilsner also.

Kellnerin: Sehr gut. Sonst noch etwas?

Gina: Very good, anything else?

Kate: Nein.

Gina: No.

Jens: Im Moment nicht, vielleicht später.

Gina: Not right now...maybe later.

POST CONVERSATION BANTER

Gina: In the dialog, we heard “organic lemonade”. Is there anything different about lemonade in Germany, Frank?

Frank: Well, it’s a type of sugar drink mixed with water, you know, like Sunkist or Coke or something.

Gina: Maybe like Sprite?

Frank: Yeah, I guess like Sprite. Gina, have you ever heard of Berliner Weisse?

Gina: Yeah, that's a special wheat beer in Berlin. But it doesn't really taste like beer from what I’ve heard. It's quite sour and it's normally served with sweet syrup, like raspberry or woodruff flavor.

Frank: Yeah, it's really weird and it’s quite an acquired taste. There's also Fassbrause. It's another drink that's special to Berlin. It's kind of a homemade soda that’s not too sweet, with a light apple and herb taste.

Gina: Also, Germany has a few other unique sodas like the Bionade brand that joined the organic food movement, by offering sodas made from natural ingredients. The flavors are quite bizarre. They include ginger and orange, lychee, herbs, and elderberry.

Frank: You can also get many different kinds of flavored water.

Gina: But before you get too thirsty.

VOCAB LIST

Frank: Bier [natural native speed]

Gina: beer

Frank: Bier [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: Bier [natural native speed]

Frank: Durst [natural native speed]

Gina: thirst

Frank: Durst [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: Durst [natural native speed]

Frank: Sorte [natural native speed]

Gina: sort, kind, type, variety, species

Frank: Sorte [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: Sorte [natural native speed]

Frank: sicher [natural native speed]

Gina: sure

Frank: sicher [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: sicher [natural native speed]

Frank: sicher [natural native speed]

Gina: sure

Frank: sicher [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: sicher [natural native speed]

Frank: Wein [natural native speed]

Gina: wine

Frank: Wein [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: Wein [natural native speed]

Frank: Kellnerin [natural native speed]

Gina: waitress

Frank: Kellnerin [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: Kellnerin [natural native speed]

Frank: verschieden [natural native speed]

Gina: different

Frank: verschieden [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: verschieden [natural native speed]

Frank: Karte [natural native speed]

Gina: card, menu, map, ticket

Frank: Karte [slowly - broken down by syllable]

Frank: Karte [natural native speed]

KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES

Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase we'll look at is...

Frank: Durst haben.

Gina: Literally “to have thirst”, or "to be thirsty" in English. Can you please give us an example?

Frank: Sure! Ich habe Durst!

Gina: “I’m thirsty!”

Frank: You can also use the adjective durstig to say ich bin durstig.

Gina: And that just means “thirsty”. But this is not commonly used.

Frank: That’s right. So ich habe Durst is much more common. The same goes for saying that you're hungry. It's ich habe Hunger.

Gina: “I have hunger” literally. Or “I am hungry” in English.

Frank: Right! Okay, let’s take a look at the next phrase, ich bin mir sicher.

Gina: It means "I am sure". But the literal meaning is “I am sure of myself.” So what would the first person plural be?

Frank: It would be wir sind uns sicher.

Gina: “We are certain.” There's always an extra pronoun in there because the phrases are reflexive - they literally mean “I am sure of myself” or “we are sure of ourselves”.

Frank: That’s right. Finally, the phrase hätte gern.

Gina: Literally translates to "would gladly have". It's the most common phrase when placing an order. It doesn't matter if you're ordering a drink, some food or even non-food items like clothing.

Frank: You can always express your wishes with ich hätte gern.

Gina: Great to know! Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use plural nouns in German. Unfortunately, there are several different ways of forming a plural in German. It's not as straightforward as in English.

Frank: Instead, we let you get a feel for the typical shape of German words. And with this, you’ll find it easier to understand the plural.

Gina: First, there are words that add "s" like in English which switches a singular word to plural. Those are the easiest. Words like cocktail, long drink, team, handy, or hobby will simply add an "s" like in English.

Frank: Yeah, except that in German, it's Hobbys with a "YS" and not "IES".

Gina: A lot of words in German that are derived from foreign languages work this way. Abbreviations do too.

Frank: For example, auto is short for automobil and the plural is autos.

Gina: Next, there is a large group of words that add an “EN” ending.

Frank: These are largely feminine words.

Gina: If you know that a word is feminine, assume that the plural ending is "EN".

Frank: As in Serien.

Gina: Meaning “series”. For those last two, there's actually a general rule.

Frank: All nouns ending in "UNG" will use "UNGEN" for plural. And the ones ending in UNG are all feminine as well.

Gina: Okay. The final group of nouns we're looking at is masculine nouns.

Frank: They'll usually add "E" to make it plural. If they already end in "E", then they'll simply stay the same.

Gina: For those that need an added "E", you need to be careful though.

Frank: Some of them also add an Umlaut to their vowel. Like the word Saft, which means “juice” changes to Säfte, "juices”. And some more examples are Jahre,

Gina: “years”

Frank: Abende,

Gina: “evenings”

Frank: Busse,

Gina: “buses”

Frank: Brote,

Gina: “breads”

Frank: Geschenke,

Gina: “gifts”

Frank: Gäste,

Gina: “guests”

Frank: Städte,

Gina: “cities”

Frank: Tage.

Gina: “days”

Frank: Practice your plurals, listeners, and you’ll be more flexible when talking about more than one item.

Gina: Right! And leave us a comment if you need help with any plural!

Outro

Gina: And that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.

Hello Listeners, what would you like to drink? Try answering in German!

GermanPod101.com

Wednesday at 10:43 am

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Hi Emelyne,

Now you have a party!😄

"Entschuldigung, ich hätte gerne zwei Flaschen Bier mehr."

Thank you.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Kind regards,

Reinhard

Team GermanPod101.com

Emelyne

Saturday at 12:12 am

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Entshuldigung, ich hätte gerne zwei Flaschen mehr Bier!!

GermanPod101.com

Thursday at 3:27 pm

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Hi Emelyne,

Very good!👍

But why only one?😉

Thank you.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Kind regards,

Reinhard

Team GermanPod101.com

Emelyne

Sunday at 1:23 am

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Ich hätte gerne eine Flasche Bier!

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